Colbert was referring to Stewart taking a three-month hiatus from “The Daily Show” to direct his upcoming movie “Rosewater” in the Middle East. Oliver replaced Stewart to great fanfare and even wound up with his own HBO late-night show, “Last Week Tonight,” in the process.

However, Stewart’s break from the show happened to fall during Emmy voting and, if Colbert is correct, may have cost him Emmy #11 in the same Variety Series race he had dominated since 2003. In other words, was it simply Stewart’s scheduling fluke that caused “The Colbert Report” to triumph?

Last year, our own Tom O’Neil watched all of the episode submissions in the Variety Series race and declared it to be a battle between “The Daily Show” and “Jimmy Kimmel Live,” thanks to the latter’s stand-out submission in which Matt Damon kidnapped Jimmy Kimmel and then proceeded to host the show and its roster of A-listers. Based on all six nominees’ episode submissions, O’Neil gave “Colbert Report” only third-best odds to claim victory.

That begs the question, if Emmy voters wanted to penalize Stewart for taking the summer off, why not reward Kimmel for having the best episode submission? Perhaps voters bypassed the normal viewing panel part of their jobs and just went with their personal favorite “Colbert Report” instead? Don’t forget, Colbert’s writing staff also won the Emmy for Best Variety Writing last year too (as well as in 2008 and 2010), so voters clearly just love the show.

This year, Colbert and Stewart are once again back in contention for Best Variety Series. But if you ask me, they both better watch their backs because there’s a newcomer to the race that could claim the win: Jimmy Fallon as the new host of NBC’s “The Tonight Show.” Fallon is young, he’s hip, he’s fresh, and he’s a recent Emmycast host to boot. Is the writing on the wall for an easy Fallon victory, or might Colbert and/or Stewart claim Emmy glory?

What show do you think will win the Emmy for Best Variety Series? Make your own predictions below this video of Colbert’s Emmy acceptance speech and then sound off in the comments section or join the discussion in our Emmys forum.

How do they judge variety series? Do the shows submit one episode or six episodes the way the comedies and dramas do for best program? Or something else? Because I’m thinking if the judges watch that Daft Punk episode of Colbert Report, then it’s a slam dunk win for the show.

I feel like Colbert’s rounding out of his time on the Colbert Report will get their attention more though. Stewart’s gotten so many so they probably will think about how they don’t have any opportunities to recognize him for that character.

It’s always frustrating when they continually pass over Craig Ferguson. I watch him, Stewart and Colbert. Craig has the lowest budget and I can’t help but think they take the lack of production bells and whistles and hold it against him. His interviews are better, he’s more spontaneous with his wit (well he and Colbert probably tower over everybody else there), and he doesn’t do pre-interviews or at least only uses them to make sure not to go ‘how’s the wife?’ and the guy’s wife just filed for divorce or something…He hates pre-packaged stories from the guests so he’ll guide them into all kinds of areas to find an interesting conversation. How is what he does not getting rewarded?